Carl Zeiss, (born September 11, 1816, Weimar, Thuringian States [Germany]—died December 3, 1888, Jena), German industrialist who gained a worldwide reputation as a manufacturer of fine optical instruments.

In 1846 Zeiss opened a workshop in Jena for producing microscopes and other optical instruments. Realizing that improvements in optical instruments depended on advances in optical theory, in 1866 he engaged as a research worker Ernst Abbe, a physics and mathematics lecturer (later professor) at the University of Jena, who soon became Zeiss’s partner. They engaged Otto Schott, a chemist, who developed about 100 new kinds of optical glass and numerous types of heat-resistant glass.

After the death of Zeiss, Abbe donated the Zeiss firm and his share in the glassworks to the Carl Zeiss Foundation. In 1923 Schott added his share in the glassworks to the foundation. In 1945 the Zeiss facilities in Jena were bombed in Allied raids, and the firm’s employees and assets were subsequently dispersed, with rival enterprises in East and West Germany doing business under the Carl Zeiss name until they combined in 1991.

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